Trade with the gifts God has given you - and train your heart and lips to song!

Music: Lauda 3, written and performed by Bill Klein This is an extract from a brilliant exhortation that Abbess Hilda gave back in the seventh century. As the monks and nuns in her charge in her great double monastery looked out over the North Sea and Whitby harbour, you can hear the waves crashing against the East Cliff at the beginning and end of this piece. Don't worry, they can't reach you! These are the gems that Hilda shared: Trade with the gifts God has given you. Bend your minds to holy learning that you may escape the fretting moth of littleness of mind that would wear out your souls. Brace your wills to action that they may not be the spoils of weak desires. Train your hearts and lips to song, which gives courage to the soul. Being buffeted by trials, learn to laugh. Being reproved, give thanks. Having failed, determine to succeed.